Power Rangers Dawn of Light
by juzblue
Summary: When an intergalatic war between good and evil reach planet Earth, five teens must protect their home at all cost, while trying to cope with everyday life and deal with their hormones, of course.


**Disclaimer: **I do not own the concept of Power Rangers or some of the names that you might recognize (i.e.Eltare, Aquitar, the 'League'... I'll let you know when there're more). They belong to whoever currently owns them (honestly, they keep changing it...). However, I do own the characters in this story.

**Author's Notes: **Yup, a new story. Hopefully this one will last longer than two chapters...

This story is set in the real world, where Power Rangers are just TV shows. Thus, it might be a little bit more practical (at least I'll try to make it so), no big, bulky zords (they have zords! But more gundam like... mwahaha), no stupid villians who actually wait for them to transform...etc.

And yes, the other Power Rangers OC fanfic you see in my profile is the 'old' version of this. This story started almost two months after they were chosen, and if you want to know how they ended up here, you can read that story but do keep in mind that I changed many things (For starters, there are NO twins on the team now). Actually, it'll be safe for me to say that I changed EVERYTHING, except what happened, that is. Know what I mean?

I know! I'll try to continue my other stories, especially the Wild Force one. (try being the key word, so no promises!)

Hmm... that's all, right? Please review!

* * *

**Power Rangers – Dawn of Light**

**Chapter One – Potential**

He did not like the news.

"Leave," he told the trembling servant, not unkindly. The little creature squealed fearfully and scrambled out of the chamber, glad it even survived. He was often amused by this, since he is nothing like the ruthless monarch his father is, but today he had more pressing matters at hand. He was rather surprised, impressed, even, but that doesn't mean he like the news. No, he did not like the news at all.

Waving his hand casually in front of him, he brought up a map of the galaxy where the blue-green planet is located. Finding the planet was easy. That small little orb is the only planet in that galaxy wih any intelligent life form on it at all. How pathetic.

What was its name again? He enlarged the hologram in front of him with a flick of a finger, pausing briefly only to admire the the graceful shell that had become his body. Beings like him takes no form at all, but in order to claim back what had been theirs, eons ago, they needed a shell, a body. And the perfect body has to allow the most flexibility, strength and the most important of all – the potential to be even greater.

Ironically, the so-called 'perfect' shell they've found so far was that of those Eltaran fools, or more precisely, the human body – the body of the very being they're fighting against.

That planet is inhabited by humans too, he remembered from one of the reports. He twitched his fingers and the hologram spun slowly in front on him. Is that what they meant by potential? He wondered, staring at this supposedly 'sheltered' and 'backward' planet. It wasn't much of importance at all. That was why he sent a fool like Magrok to take care of it. The destruction of not only Magrok's ship itself but the whole _army_ that went with it was almost... impressive.

The hologram disappeared with a snap of his fingers.

He needed someone, _someone_ to not only take care of the planet but also to give him a full report on the so-called 'potential' of these... humans, someone who isn't as foolish as Magrok... why yes, Duke Scorkene would be perfect. Not only is he the only one around here who actually earned his respect, he is aslo the only one who is loyal to him, not frightened by him. Yes... he would be perfect.

_Scorkene_, he summoned the Duke telepathically, though knowing him, he'd probably start an inter-ship transmission anyway.

Sure enough, a magical screen appeared in front of him seconds later.

"Yes, my lord?" Came the dark, confident voice.

"I have a mission for you," he paused, finally recalling the planet's name, "I want you to take care of planet Earth."

* * *

"Cheers!" 

Their cups made a funny noise when clunk together and Rika couldn't help but rolled her eyes while laughing at the sheer silliness of this, though she didn't mind it at all. They had deserve it.

"To the defeat of 'Lord' Magrok!" Cody declared, raising his cup, a gleeful grin on his face. Everyone else followed suit, half-laughing while completing the toast, making the lounge suddenly seemed too noisy - as noisy as it can get with five sugar-hyped teenagers in it anyway.

When the room quieten down a little, Rika looked around the table with a smile on her face. Never in her fifteen years of life did she ever think she'd someday end up like this – living on a spaceship, saving the world with a bunch of old friends she never thought she'd talk to again and most of all, to belong. Looking around at the happy faces that surrounded her, she couldn't help but feel relived and grateful to whatever powers that be out there – maybe it was just her, but she felt they came to close with death just now and she didn't like that.

"So, any plans tonight?" Anna asked excitedly beside her, grinning from ear to ear. Rika found herself grinning at her best friend – it was just funny to see the normally melanchonic pink ranger like that –like a child going to the amusement park for the first time.

"What, you're not tired after the battle?" Ken teased from his spot opposite the girls.

Everyone knows that the yellow ranger was 'rumoured' to have a crush on Anna since they were twelve, and all of them had been waiting for something to happen ever since the five of them moved into the ship almost two months ago. But so far there had only been the occasional teasing and countless un-undetected glances. It was driving the remaining members of the team nuts.

"We just defeated our enemy!" Anna retorted, "sleep can come later."

Surprisingly, the normally quiet black ranger spoke up. "I second that." Shawn said, a slight grin on his face.

"Then how 'bout a movie night?" Cody suggested, "We're going 'down' tomorrow anyway," he continued, referring to their weekly trip to Earth to visit their families, since they are not allowed to go home during school days at their 'dormitary', "- the things to do 'down' there can wait."

Rika quickly agreed to that. Their equivalant of a movie night is popcorn, lots of pillows to cuddle in and the huge screen in the lounge with the whole room to themselves, who can say no to that?

"Just..." she hesitated when the others turn their attetion to her, "...no horror films?" she smiled feebly.

The guys exchanged glances and turned to her with a devilish grin. Damn.

"Bad idea, girl." Anna patted her back sympathetically, though the huge grin on her face betrayed any compassion she might've felt.

"Oh don't worry, Rika," Ken told her, the grin still on his face.

"Yeah," Cody continued, "we'll be good and watch _Sleeping Beauty_."

She sighed.

"Hey I want to watch _Cinderalla_!"

Well, maybe she should bring her discman along and just sleep through the whole thing.

* * *

"Move!" 

Shawn watched with amused eyes as his teammates continued to cause a commotion while trying to grab the best spot among the huge piles of pillows dragged in front to the screen. How on Earth did they got the pillows onto the ship, he had no idea. But maybe they're all from the spare rooms next to theirs –he didn't really know how many rooms there are on the Ace, heck, he hadn't even been to some parts of the ship. It's like having a whole five-storey mall to yourself, thrilling, yet overwhelming.

For some reason, all of them seemed to 'let' Ken and Anna sit beside each other during every movie night. Well, all of them but said persons anyway. And right now Anna decided to spilt the pillows into 'girls' and 'guys' parts, causing the two girls to sit at the right end of the room with Rika closer to the wall and the guys on the left, with Shawn by the wall and Cody in the middle, leaving Ken on the outside with a small space between Anna and him.

"So," Cody annouced when all of them got comfortable, "which movie do you want to watch?"

"I thought we agreed on _Cinderella_!" Ken cried.

Shawn grinned and saw Rika rolled her eyes at the other end of the room. He never knew she's afraid of these kind of things. She must've heard his protest about never watching horror movies on movie nights that day.

"Okay, okay," she surrendered, putting her hands in the air, "you guys watch what you want, I'll keep my eyes shut." To prove her point, she laid back on the pillows and closed her eyes.

Both Cody and Anna chuckled.

After (much) more joking and teasing, Anna complained that she was getting sleepy and ordered them to just ask VIKI, the on board computer, to just pick one randomly.

They ended up watching _Stuart Little_.

Halfway through the movie, he sighed. He watched this movie ages ago, and he wasn't impressed even then. Not that it sucked or anything, he just isn't into this kind of... kids' stuff. Even that he _was_ a kid back then. Putting his hands behind his head, he tried to recall what made him watch this movie on that summer day, so long ago.

Then he remembered. The four of them –Cody, Ken, Anna and him—and a whole bunch of classmates had went to see it together, since they were not old enough to watch horror movies back then and the girls were not interested in action-packed one. They were what, nine? Ten?

So much has changed since then. They graduated from grade school and went on seperate ways, some of them moved away, some of them went to the same school, like Cody and Ken and him, while the girls, coincidently, went to the same girls school. Friendships were made and lost... heck, they became _Power Rangers_, for god's sake.

Shaking his head, he reassured himself of his sanity.

It happened two months ago, so suddenly. One day, he was teleported to a spaceship, met a human from another planet who gave them their morphers and later became their mentor, given the keys—codes, in this case – to a high-tech battleship and boom! He found himself saving the day dressing in spandex suits, just like the colour-coded gang he used to watch on TV when he was four.

And they actually defeated Magrok, the commander of their enemy ship. It was a close call, he knew, they were just lucky that none of them got hurt at all.

He yawned.

Cody chuckled beside him. "Glad I'm not the only one."

He turned to look at him.

"I was getting sleepy too," Cody whispered, trying not to disturb the others, "and I'm kinda sure it has nothing to do with the battle just now." he cocked his head at the screen, which is currently showing a white mouse piloting a ship in a boat race.

Shawn grinned a little at that. "Remember the first time we watched it?" he laid back on his pillows, staring at the grey ceiling.

"Mm-hm."

Shawn kept quiet for a while, not exactly sure himself why he brought it up. "Rika wasn't there, was she?" It was more of a statement.

"Yeah," Cody replied slowly, sounding a little thoughtful, "I never seen her with us before –the bunch of us, I mean."

"Hmm." True. For four consecutive years the five of them were in the same class, yet he only remember her as the smart, quiet girl at the back, no memories of joking or running around, like he did with the others. She was always quiet, not joining their games even when invited. Anna said she had changed after they graduated, but even after two months of living under one roof, he still couldn't quite figure out what kind of person she is, despite being surprised when she joined in the conversation at the beginning.

A few moments passed without them saying anything.

"Why'd you ask?" Cody sounded like he'd been dying to know.

He shrugged after a moment's pause. "It's just... it's like I don't know her. Sometimes I wonder just _who_ is she, ya know?"

When Cody didn't respond, he turned to look at him. There was an unusual frown on his friend's face. "But why do you care?" It was a question out of curiousity, nothing else.

Shawn shook his head, shrugging.

"She's just like that, you know," the red ranger said, "you just have to accept her."

"It's not that I don't," he frowned, trying to put his feelings into words, "it's just..." he let out a frustrated sigh, "look at it this way, we talk to her, we live on the same ship, we fight side by side... when you look at her, don't you want to know who she is? Don't you just have that feeling..." he trailed off, making a gesture with his hands, as if he was trying to catch something that's trying to slip away.

Cody looked amused. "Just trust her, man."

Shawn turned back to the ceiling, frustrated.

"I mean," Cody began, "'we talk, we live on the same ship, we fight side by side,'" the red ranger quoted, "what more do you need to know?"

To his surprise, his frustration eased a little when he realised his own scepticism and reluctance to trust someone he doesn't know inside out of. Perhaps he wasn't as trusting as he used to be.

_Why can't we just trust people anymore?_ Even when Cody's snoring can be heard sometime later, the question continued to haunt his mind.

* * *

"Psst." 

"Sheesh!"

"Psst."

"Mmf!"

Someone poked her side and Anna turned to Ken with an annoyed look on her face. This is why she hates to watch movies with guys – they never sit still! All they are interested in is either all the explosions or the excuse to hold a girl when they watch horror films.

Ken was grinning. "Check this out." he pointed at Cody, whose head was rested on the pillows, with his mouth hanging open slightly, _snoring_.

She stared at him incredulously. Ken's grin grew wider.

"What?" Rika asked beside her, poking her head to see what happened. At the sight of their snoring leader, she chuckled. "At least there isn't any drool."

This time the blue ranger got the stare. _Are you kidding?_ Anna wanted to ask. Though she gotta admit it was funny and couldn't help but giggled when she saw the grin on her friend's face. Rika cocked her head at Shawn's direction and she saw that he, too, was sleeping. At least he was doing it quietly. Anna didn't know what to think.

"What's the point of a movie night if they're planning to sleep through it anyway?" she muttered to no one in particular.

"Hey I'm not sleeping!-"

"So we have an excuse to not be in our own rooms and stare at nothing?" Both of them replied at the same time. Anna grinned – until she digested what Rika said. Somehow, she got a... warm feeling when she realised what it meant, and it made her feel even better about the abrupt turn in her life two months ago.

Sure, it scared the hell out of her at first, knowing how close to death all of them have suddenly become. But what she got in return – she doesn't think anything can compare to it, not even all the near-death experiences she'd had so far. But then again, maybe those two are not supposed to be compared anyway. It's just what they do, and the others are just what they've gain, in return, she remembered Rika told her on the night of their first battle, two months ago.

_The metal door slid shut behind her and she looked around at the room – her new room. The light was dim. And almost everything is grey – the walls, her bunk bed, her small desk at the corner, all of a dull, uninviting grey. The only colour in the room is her pale pink bedsheet and the bag she brought from her home yesterday. What have she done? _

_Crawling onto her bed, she felt the need to hide in the corner, to be as far away from all this as possible. What was she thinking! Taking the so-called power and just throw away her life like that? _

_Images of explosion and chaos flooded her mind. People were running around, yelling and screaming as she fend off the ugly creatures responsible for all this. There were bodies on the ground – dead, real, burnt bodies, not the fake corspes she sees on TV. _

_She hugged her knees tighter. _

_"Anna?" the voice outside the door sound hesitant. She didn't feel like answering. But the voice was persistant. "You okay in there?... Yen?" _

_She looked up a little at the sound of her name. Her _real _name. Not the code name she is using now; not of the life she gave up everything for. _

_The door opened. Harsh, bright light poured in and she winced a little. _

_"Sorry," Rika sounded genuinely apologetic as she walked in and keyed the door shut. She stood at the middle of the room, her hands hanging at her sides awkwardly. "I told VIKI to override the lock." _

_Anna turned to her and tried to smile. It was hard, and it shook, so she gave up smiling and turned back. _

_"You okay? You look shaken." _

_She shrugged. So she could tell. _

_"Ken wanted to come, you know," Rika walked to her bed and sat down gently, trying to lighten the mood, "but the others kept saying that he just wanted to come to your room, so he didn't." _

_She didn't know why she wasn't smiling at that or why she hadn't started pouring her hearts out. She knew she can tell her best friend everything. She knew it was kinda rude, too, ignoring her like that. _

_"You have to talk to me, you know, or I'm going to start assuming things." _

_She didn't move. _

_"Is it because of what happened just now?" Shaking her head, her best friend quickly corrected herself, "I mean, the battle – the people?" _

_She frowned. _

_Rika sighed. "If it's the people, I'm going to say that we've done what we could – there might be more dea – loss, if we didn't do what we did. Follow that train of thought and you'll feel better._

_"If it's the battle..." _

_She tilted her head a little and she knew her best friend knew she got it right this time. _

_"If it's the battle..." she trailed off, leaving a thoughtful silence around her. _

_"I know it got dangerous just now but we're all okay, right? This kind of things..." the blue ranger shook her head, correcting herself, "I mean, you know this will happen when you accept the Power, so we just –" _

_"I didn't!" she blurted out, finally letting her frustrations show, "I didn't _want_ the stupid Power! I just got in because all of you did! You know that!" taking deep breaths, she calmed herself a little. "I don't want... all... this. I don't want to worry about getting killed everyday, I don't want to see all those... I just want my life back." she finished quietly, wiping her now damp cheek absent-mindedly._

_"Well," Rika said, almost timidly, "look on the bright side: we are a team now and we live on a spaceship! You do realise not everyone get to do that, right? And err, the things we do, the places we can go... don't you ever think that's cool?" _

_She just stared at her. Rika sighed. _

_"No, you can't compare them together, I know what you mean." she turned away from her distraught friend, "Maybe we're not supposed to do that. But you shouldn't think too much about that. It's just what we do, you know? What we have to. As for the others, it's just what we've gain in return. They're two different things – it's just how you think of them, that's all." _

_When she put it as matter-of-factly as that, it does seem to ease the pain a little. But in her current depressed state, she just couldn't bring herself to feel happy. _

_"And I, for one," her friend continued as if nothing happened, "am going to think that I'm a tragic, noble hero who deserves to get everything for free and I'm going to claim all the stars in the Milky Way or I'll sulk for the rest of my life but save the day anyway 'cause I'm too noble to quit." _

_She had to laugh at that, slapping Rika's shoulder playfully. _

_"See, it wasn't that hard isn't it?" Relief was in her voice. "Now do you want to go hang out with the guys? It's still early. 'Sides, I'm sure they'll do a better job at this – I'm not good at this cheering people up stuff." _

_She smiled a little. You're doing just fine, she wanted to say. Instead, she murmured a 'sure' and accepted the hand Rika held out for her._

_Maybe it won't be that bad after all. _

_

* * *

_

The ship known as the Ace continued to loom around the darker part of the planet protectively, its occupants enjoying their victory peacefully and gratefully, unaware that a dark fortress is slowly approaching from the shadows...


End file.
